Kiev is hoping to receive several dozen F-16 fighter jets from its NATO ‘partners’ following Washington’s approval of the training of Ukrainian pilots to fly the planes. Moscow has vowed to account for the deployment of F-16s into its military strategy, and warned that such an “escalation scenario” carries “enormous risks” for the West.
The F-16 – America’s workhorse fourth-generation multi-role fighter, would suffer a serious blow to its reputation if the planes are sent to Ukraine and destroyed at their airfields or downed in air-to-air combat by Russian jets.
That’s according to a fresh analysis of an independent military news portal, which cites Washington’s previously-expressed reluctance to allow allies like the Netherlands and Norway to supply older F-16s to Ukraine as a sign that the US officials recognize that “the United States would be bearing the primary risk” from their deployment.
“Not only is there a possibility that the fighter or its technologies could fall into Russian hands, as other Western equipment has in considerable quantities, but there is also a much greater chance that the fighters could suffer significant losses both to strikes on their airfields and in air-to-air combat which would be a major blow to the F-16’s reputation,” the portal noted.
Pointing to the F-16’s increasingly outdated status against peer competitors, the outlet stressed that in fighting against Russian air power, there would be a “very high possibility that the class [of fighters] would have only very limited survivability due to its lack of stealth capabilities and limited ability to engage top end heavyweight aircraft in the Russian fleet,” including the Su-35, the MiG-31 and the Su-57. Deployment to Ukraine would also mean vulnerability to Russian long-range surface-to-air missiles.....More Below
US President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday the upcoming start of ground strikes against drug cartel targets in Latin America.
He made the remarks during Christmas greetings to the military.
Trump said the United States was "now going after the land" in its fight against drug cartel targets, noting that drug trafficking by sea was down 96 percent.
The U.S. president also extended special congratulations to the crew of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, currently deployed in the Caribbean.
BEIJING (Sputnik) - China has begun operating the world's first intelligent ultra-large oil tanker powered by methanol, the China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Monday.
The tanker, designed to transport crude oil, was successfully put into operation in the city of Dalian in China's northeastern coastal province of Liaoning, the report said. State-owned company Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co Ltd independently designed and built the vessel, it added.
The tanker is approximately 333 meters (1,092 feet) long and can carry around 2.1 million barrels of crude oil, the CCTV reported. Designed to produce low emissions and having intelligent control capabilities, the tanker will serve the route to the Middle East, among others, according to the report.
The vessel is powered by a dual-fuel methanol engine, which reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 92% compared to conventional fuel, the CCTV reported. It is equipped with an intelligent ship platform, an intelligent liquid cargo ...
A car bomb has killed a senior General Staff member, officials have confirmed
Source: The Investigative Committee
A Russian general has been killed in a car bomb blast in Moscow, the Investigative Committee has reported.
Officials identified the victim as Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of operational training at the General Staff. According to the statement, an explosive device had been planted beneath the vehicle he was traveling in, and detonated on Monday morning in the southern part of the Russian capital.
The blast also damaged several other vehicles and seriously injured Sarvarov’s driver, media reports stated.
Russian officials said one line of investigation is an assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services, noting that Kiev has previously used explosive devices in targeted killings of officials and public figures.
Last December, a bomb hidden in an e-scooter killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, commander of Russia’s Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense ...
